I was sick for Monday's class and I missed the talk about proliferation so I decided to blog about guns, my experience with them in the Middle East, and how you can trace international politics through history by looking at what firearm your Arab or Israeli friend is carrying.
I have seen soldiers, police and sometimes random people with guns in every country I have visited in the Middle East. They all carry a variety of weapons, some from the old Communist bloc, WWII, WWI, Western Europe, the USA, or China. I have been through gun shops in the Middle East and they also display the past 75 years of weapons history on their shelves. When I go to these places or see people with different weapons I ask myself why and how they got there.
I've posted a ton of pictures and I'll explain the weapons and history. You can see how past foreign policy and events in the Middle East push arms and ammunition around the region. Even though these events happened a long time ago, weapons and ammunition still exist.
The following four pictures are from the military museum in Tunis.
I have seen soldiers, police and sometimes random people with guns in every country I have visited in the Middle East. They all carry a variety of weapons, some from the old Communist bloc, WWII, WWI, Western Europe, the USA, or China. I have been through gun shops in the Middle East and they also display the past 75 years of weapons history on their shelves. When I go to these places or see people with different weapons I ask myself why and how they got there.
I've posted a ton of pictures and I'll explain the weapons and history. You can see how past foreign policy and events in the Middle East push arms and ammunition around the region. Even though these events happened a long time ago, weapons and ammunition still exist.
The following four pictures are from the military museum in Tunis.
These four rifles somehow made it into the Tunisian arsenal. You have weapons from Germany, the United States, France, and Sweden during WWII. These were probably leftovers form the North Africa Campaign. Weapons leftover during war, especially during a fast paced campaign like North Africa, make it into the hands of anyone who can get them.
Two British Vickers Machine guns
American and French Weapons. The reason Tunisia got these weapons is from being a French protectorate until the mid 1950's and because Tunisia is one of the highest recipients of US military aid.
French, Czech, and German Rifles from WWI and WWII
Israeli IDF soldiers with American M16's and M4's. Note that the soldier on the far right has an older version of the M16 while everyone else has the M4 carbine.
Jordanian soldiers with American made M4 carbines. We are strong allies with both Jordan and Israel. Even though both dont have a friendly history we give or sell them weapons.
Iran 1979. The Iranian on the left is holding an American M1 Garand, the iconic rifle from WWII that General Patton described as "The greatest battle implement ever devised". We gave the Shah a ton of arms and ammunition to prop him up. Ironically, Americans can still buy Iranian ammunition for this rifle that is from the 1950's when we gave it to them. The case the ammo comes in still has the crest of the Shah on it. http://samcoglobal.com/Ammo-30-06.html
Yemen gun market. In the background are AKM's, the updated version of the AK-47. All different models from each of the countries that produce them are represented here. The rifles behind the guy's head are British Enfields. Remember the British controlled the south until the 1960's. The guy is also holds two British Webley revolvers from the WWII era.
Iranian soldiers carrying German HK G3 rifles. Germany sold the rights to produce this rifle to Iran before the 1979 revolution. I have seen these rifles pictured in the hands of Hezbollah fighters, Syrian Army soldiers, and in Yemen.
Israelis during the 1948 war. The fighter up top is using a British Enfield, the fight below him an American m1917 rifle, the soldier directly in front is using an WWI machine gun from Eastern Europe.
Three Israeli soldiers from the Givati Brigade. The soldiers on the opposite ends are holding American Thompson sub-machine guns from WWII. The guy in the Middle is holding a WWII German K98 rifle. After WWII the Allies took weapons leftover from the war and used them for military aid as a form of containment against communism. The US and Western Europe also helped out Israelis with weapons and ammo during the 1948 war.
Israeli soldiers link up a German MG34 Machine gun from WWII during the 1948 war. The Rifle in the front leaning up against the side of the trench is a WWII German K98 rifle. If you really want to analyze the rifle you can tell it is a late war K98 because of the stamped and welded front muzzle band, meaning this rifle was part of the German's final production push in 1944-1945. I forgot to mention that the Israelis took these German rifles and re-chambered the caliber to the standard US caliber at the time so they could use the more plentiful American ammunition. The US had allowed multiple countries to produce ammunition for the weapons it sold. According to cartridgecollectors.org the following countries produced US M2 Ball ammunition: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Cambodia, Canado, Chile, China, Colombia, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Dominican Rep. Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Phillippines, Poland, Rep. of South Africa, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Vietnam, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Thailand, Turkey, UK, USA, and Yugoslavia.
Arab soldiers during the 1948 war. If you take notice they are using British weapons just like the Israelis.
Arab Legion Soldier guarding the border between Israel and Jordan. Notice he is holding a British Enfield rifle. Remember that British Officers staffed the high positions of the Jordanian army until the 1956. The British supplied the Jordanians since the Great Arab Revolt during WWI.
Israelis using the exact same type of British rifle during training.
Egyptian soldiers running with the Egyptian version of the AK-47. The Soviets sold the pattern to them. One way to get equipment during the cold war was to play the US and USSR off each other. Egypt currently receives millions, if not over a billion dollars in military aid from the US.
Total number of AK-47/74 rifles and its derivatives produced:
The BBC estimates between 70-100 million have been produced around the world and also states that the 2005 Small Arms Survey believes small arms like the AK-47/74 and other weapons you see in this blog are "responsible for some 60-90% of direct war deaths".
So why do I think this is important? For one, organizations like SIPRI (http://www.sipri.org/) don't track small arms sales. They only track the big stuff like tanks, missile systems, and helicopters. Weapons like the AK-47 and its derivatives have been produced in the millions and sent all over the world not once but probably a few times as countries buy and sell weapons and ammunition. This leads to my second point. People can get weapons easily. Even in the US we have our 2nd Amendment and its easy to buy a firearm. In countries like Somalia or Yemen you can get an full auto AK-47 relatively cheap and carry it where ever. In countries where the government is weak and there is little regulation you find lots of weapons and ammunition. As governments are being toppled and countries destabilized from the Arab Spring the proliferation of small arms increases either as country's arsenals are overrun or weapons are sent to bolster a regime or rebels.
Would you argue that small arms proliferation/disarmament is more important than say nuclear proliferation/disarmament? As you said it is relatively easy to buy an AK-47 in countries such as Somalia, so how could one even go about combating small arms sales? I know as a former Model UN participant in high school this was always a topic students would try to write position/resolution papers about and sadly no solution could ever be found. There are so many black markets and uncontrolled arms sales I would honestly believe trying to stop small arms is almost impossible.
ReplyDeleteWe had similar topics in model UN too and never came to any sort of good solution. This reinforces my opinion that we can't effectively enforce small arms proliferation and that the best way to enforce any kind of regulation is up to the government. The only problem is that small arms are easily smuggled, already there in these countries, and weak governments can't effectively regulate them when they don't actually have control. Its a lot easier to lose a few rifles and write them off than an ICBM. In Yemen in particular you have tribes that have enough firepower to challenge and defeat the military. Government crackdown and regulation on the importation, sales, and ownership would be the only way to get anywhere in that example.
ReplyDeleteWould I say its more important? Yes and no because small arms have different effects at different levels. First, people who don't have any firearms training as a substantial risk when they carry their rifle, pistol, rpg, etc around. That might sound silly but I would be very interested to know if there are reports on accidental deaths from the mishandling of small arms in countries like Yemen or Somalia. Domestically this is a problem for governments. Second, the unregulated access and ownership really damages the government's ability to have any authority over its people when the population has enough firepower to challenge it. In a situation like Yemen or even in Jordan where tribal affiliation is huge the government must be wary of their power. Third, internationally the proliferation of arms fuels conflicts in the Middle East. Countries that have been effected by revolution or war lose accountability of weapons. We've seen this in the pictures I posted with all the WWII weapons. A more current example would be Libya or Syria where weapons stockpiles were overrun and its was a free for all for anyone who wanted a rifle or machine gun. I'm sure some of Ghaddafi's arsenal made its way back to Northern Mali and is being used by the rebels there. The Free Syrian Army is also made up of groups of people from all over and I wouldn't doubt that fighters will smuggle weapons abroad and be used again somewhere else.